Wolf's milk, leche de lobo

Description:

Lycogala epidendrum , a slime mold, with the aethalia, fruiting bodies, covered by slimy pink plasmodia. When not fruiting, single celled individuals move about as very small, red amoeba-like organisms called plasmodia, masses of protoplasm that engulf bacteria, fungal and plant spores, protozoa, and particles of non-living organic matter through phagocytosis. The aethalia are small, pink to brown cushion-like globs. They may excrete a pink paste if the outer wall is broken before maturity. When mature, the colour tends to become more brownish. While immature they are filled with a pink, paste-like fluid. With maturity the fluid becomes a powdery mass of minute gray spores.

Habitat:

Spotted at the based of a dead pine trunk.

Notes:

Camera Model: NIKON D300. Exposure Time: 1/60 sec. f/36; ISO Speed Rating: 200. Exposure Bias: 0 EV. Focal Length: 90.0 mm. Flash fired.